Philip Maddocks: McCain asks Congress for a bailout of his bankrupt straight-talk image

Philip Maddocks

Friday

Sep 26, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2008 at 2:55 AM

Presidential hopeful John McCain presented Congress with a plan to buy back all the bad statements and misleading campaign commercials he has made since clinching the Republican nomination, saying the enormous bailout of his distressed "straight-talk" image was necessary to protect the hopes and aspirations of millions of American voters who wanted to vote for the guy they thought he used to be.

Presidential hopeful John McCain presented Congress with a plan to buy back all the bad statements and misleading campaign commercials he has made since clinching the Republican nomination, saying the enormous bailout of his distressed "straight-talk" image was necessary to protect the hopes and aspirations of millions of American voters who wanted to vote for the guy they thought he used to be.

Mr. McCain urged lawmakers "to enact this proposal quickly and cleanly, and avoid slowing it down with other provisions that are unrelated or don’t have the broad support of me."

The senator from Arizona said the rescue plan — handwritten on a page of lined, yellow legal pad paper — was necessary to restore confidence in his polling numbers and rid him of the illiquid political positions that had pushed his moral compass to the brink of receivership.

The presidential hopeful said having individual American taxpayers absolve him of blame for all the individual misstatements, mistakes and lies he has made in the name of his campaign would be far preferable to the alternative, which would be for the candidate to shoulder responsibility for all the errors he has made.

"We’re talking hundreds of billions of gaffes, off-message remarks, and outright fabrications," Steven Schmidt, the McCain presidential campaign senior adviser, said at a briefing in which he underscored the depth of the problem, pledged to work with Congress to address it quickly and voiced optimism that, in the end, the country would emerge from the chaos.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who appeared with Mr. McCain, said the Republican candidate’s campaign "continues to be very unpredictable, and very worrisome," and that inaction could lead to even deeper trouble for the presidential hopeful.

But one after another, senators from both parties said that, while they were prepared to move fast, they were hesitant to give the McCain campaign everything it wanted in divesting itself of valueless campaign pledges, claims, and ad spots.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, called McCain’s proposal "stunning and unprecedented in its hope and lack of denial."

Asserting that the plan would allow Mr. McCain to act with "absolute impunity," Sen. Dodd said, "After taking the minute or so needed to read this proposal, I can only conclude that it is not only your campaign that is at risk, Mr. Senator, but your soul, as well."

Another expression of disgust came from Sen. Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, who said the plan would "take Mr. McCain’s sins and spread them to the taxpayers."

Others called the McCain campaign crisis "entirely foreseeable and preventable, not an act of God," as McCain’s vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin had termed it, but rather "an act of Karl Rove," the political consultant who rose to fame as the ruthless campaign manager for George W. Bush’s two successful runs for president.

Mr. McCain said in response to questions that he shared the senators’ exasperation. "I’m not only concerned, I’m angry over what I and my campaign have done."

He blamed an outdated campaign strategy system and a bankrupt conscience for his turmoil and, in an effort to counter any impression that the proposed rescue plan is for the benefit of anyone else, said: "This is all about me. That is all we are about."

Mr. McCain said that "this troubled asset purchase program is the single most effective thing we can do to help me with the American voters and stimulate my campaign."

He and Mr. Schmidt said the problems with Mr. McCain’s duplicitous campaigning were at the core of his crisis but that the problems would continue to spread far outside the senator’s own team — perhaps even to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s campaign — if the McCain campaign’s unmanageable burden of dishonesty was not addressed, and soon.

Mr. McCain said he hoped that the government and taxpayers would recoup much of the cost of relieving him of the toxic statements that were burdening his "straight talk" image. But he did not rule out that the initial total of bad statements could rise beyond 700 billion, the limit set in the terse proposal sent by his campaign to Congress.

"That doesn’t mean we’ll go all the way there, or it doesn’t mean it will stop there and we won’t ask for more," Mr. McCain said. "What we need is something that is big enough to get the job done. We’ll ask for what we think is a right amount to give us plenty of flexibility."

Philip Maddocks can be reached at pmaddock @cnc.com.

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